The social media platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
